Watch The Night Affair For Free

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Best movie of this year hands down!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

There's much to admire here - atmosphere, jazz-influenced soundtrack, noirish photography, Hazel Scott and, last but not least Jean Gabin and Danielle Darrieux (who gets a 'with the participation of ...' credit which means she doesn't turn up until halfway through the fourth reel and even then it's little more than an extended cameo). By the late fifties Gabin had made the transition from hood to flic - he played Maigret three times - and here he portrays a semi maverick Inspector investigating the murder of a nightclub boss. He enjoyed a long association with director Gilles Graingier who this time around seems to be under the influence of Jean-Pierre Melville, especially Bob, Le flambeur, although there's not a lot wrong with that. The one jarring not is the plot or lack of same which is unsatisfactory to say the least however there are compensations in the shape of Darrieux - who, if she makes it to the first of May, will celebrate her one hundredth birthday - and Gabin.

Although the French made some terrific film noir movies, in some cases it's more than just the language that makes them different from their American counterparts. Take "The Night Affair", for example. It has a plot that NEVER would have been used in an American film of the day--unless major changes had been made in the plot. Keep reading and I think you'll agree.The film stars Jean Gabin as a police detective. This surprised me a bit, as in almost all the films I've seen him in, he's played a bad guy--a career criminal, a dangerous psychotic or a guy on the run from the law. However, the role seemed less surprising when I saw what sort of cop he was, as his moral compass was a bit impaired. This is apparent when he meets a very pretty lady who turns out to be a prostitute. He sleeps with her and the next day notices the tell-tale signs that she is a drug addict. Instead of dropping her or perhaps arresting her, however, he spends the rest of the movie running interference for her--even when it appears she might have committed murder.As I said above, the plot is NOT like an American film noir. While cops COULD be evil or have a misdirected ethical base, sleeping with a junkie is not something you're going to see in a 1950s American film.Now my comments are not necessarily a complaint. The film is well made and somewhat interesting--though it does drag a bit as the film progresses. It's worth seeing--mostly because Gabin's performance is his usual effortless and graceful job.

Although it is not based on a Simenon novel,the atmosphere recalls that of the Belgian writer.And Audiard comes up with one good line or two particularly when Gabin tells Darrieux that ,with her medicine,she can calm her protégée forever.Another proof positive that Grangier was a good director in the fifties and if this one is not as exciting as "Danger De Mort" or "Retour A L'Envoyeur " ,it's because the writers hesitate between detective story and psychological drama.The two sides of the plot do not hang well together ;besides,Darrieux's part,very important,is underwritten and it's 45 minutes before she appears.Grangier knew how to show the big city at night with its lights ,its darkness on the edge ,its shady places .He was not afraid,like Decoin in "Razzia Sur LA Chnouff " to show an already drug-addicted youth.The Commissaire /Young girl relationship is as much father /daughter as it is lovers .This loser is actually from a wealthy German family,a subject which would be trendy ten years later in the wake of May 68.

Jean Gabin is not playing Inspecteur Maigret here, but he is a detective investigating the murder of a night club owner who also deals heroin. Nadja Tiller plays a glamourous habituee of the club who falls for Gabin; she is also a junkie. Her scene of withdrawal is far from the gritty reality, she just seems to have a hangover and sweats a bit.I was impressed with Hazel Scott in a small part as the club's pianist-singer. This Barbadian-born performer married Adam Clayton Powell and had to leave the US in the Fifties because of her leftist politics. She was played by Vanessa L. Williams in a recent made for TV movie. On the basis of this small part, she could have had a career like Dorothy Dandridge's.